Win a Date With Tad Hamilton

WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: suggestive dialogue

Rated:

There comes a time in every girl's life when she really likes a screen actor. Maybe he's in a hot television show, or plays the romantic lead in a barrage of big screen flicks. Whatever it is, there's just something unreachable and beautiful about him that wins over her heart and allows her to live out the fantasy of "what if?" In Win a Date With Tad Hamilton, that what if becomes a reality for one lucky girl.

The biggest young star of the age happens to be Tad Hamilton. And Rosalee (Kate Bosworth) has seen every single one of his films, along with her best friend Cathy (Ginnifer Goodwin). There's no role he cannot pull off with effortless talent, from the rough cowboy to the dashing soldier. Drowning in the sap of his romantic overtures to a glassy-eyed leading lady, the two of them walk, talk, live, and breathe Tad Hamilton, much to the disgust of their manager and friend Pete (Topher Grace). In the meantime, Tad (Josh Duhamel) has landed in the tabloids one too many times and his agents (Nathan Lane, Sean Hayes) concoct a plan to pitch him as the poster boy for good morals to an unbelieving public. Thus, they propose to raise money for charity by offering the winner of a raffle a date with Tad. It costs $100 to enter, but that doesn't prevent Rosalee from going for it with Pete's permission, since he doesn't believe she'll actually win the date.

But then she does, and her life is suddenly filled with photographers, journalists, and most of all, the toothy grin of Tad. That one date is magical, but the spell she casts over Tad when she reveals she's not a one night stand kind of girl makes him interested. Yearning for a bit of innocence in his life, he follows her back to Podunk town just to be "friends," a fact that drives Pete nearly to distraction as he is forced to come to the realization that he's about to lose the girl he secretly loves to a man who "pretends to be in love" for a living. The result is a fairly typical and predictable film that doesn't have any great heart behind it, but is an enjoyable watch. The characters are quite likable. Some of them are outrageous, others insincere, and the rest just plain sweet. I also got a kick out of Tad's self-absorbed managers.

The actors have nice chemistry together and it does offer some really good comic moments, particularly toward the beginning. There are subtle lessons about protecting your heart, not backing down from a challenge, and weighing your emotions against your head. Rosalee is swept up in Tad's romantic nature but also has a level head on her when challenged to think things through. It's one of those films in which you're rather fascinated with the "bad boy," but earnestly want the small-town couple to wind up together. Tad has his good intentions but in the end he's just the same as he always was, albeit a little more sensitive about where he puts his heart. There are some content issues, but most of them come in the form of verbal warnings from Pete to Rosalee not to let Tad anywhere near her "carnal treasure." Cathy has an unhealthy sexual obsession with Tad and makes comments to Pete about what they are probably doing on their date. It sounds like a paragraph from a racy smut novel.

A couple of gay jokes accompany various references to sex. On their date, Tad invites Rosalee into his posh flat but she asks him to take her back to the hotel and says goodnight with a kiss. Weeks later, they kiss romantically on a bed, and Tad appears like he's going to unbutton her shirt, but she stops him. It comes across as Rosalee wanting to save herself, but she also goes a little out of bounds by making out with him in a parked car. There are a handful of mild profanities and a reference to cocaine. It was cute but something about it just didn't resonate with me the way I wanted it to. It seemed that the depth was missing, however much I enjoyed it while it lasted. Still, it's not often that you find a heroine who doesn't immediately leap into bed with her date, and that is something to be applauded.